Mr. Cohen began his professional legal career at a personal injury firm in 1992, the year after he graduated from Cooley Law School in Michigan....

Mr. Cohen began his professional legal career at a personal injury firm in 1992, the year after he graduated from Cooley Law School in Michigan. His boss at that first job would later plead guilty to bribery.

Before he started working as a lawyer for Trump, Cohen built his wealth in the taxi business in New York and Chicago. He has said he bought medallions in the 1990s from his father-in-law, Fima Shusterman, an immigrant from Ukraine. In 2003, Cohen said, he owned 200 taxi medallions, according to ProPublica. Around the same time, Cohen and his in-laws moved into high-end real estate, including apartments in Manhattan’s Trump World Tower, Trump Palace and Trump Park Avenue. Cohen has since invested in New York City apartment buildings.

Cohen is the co-owner of Mad Dog with a woman who has the same name as his mother, according to taxi records. His wife, Laura, is listed as sole owner of Martha Cab Corp., LAF Hacking Corp. and NY Funky Taxi Corp, all subjected to the latest liens. The Cohens’ 32 medallions were last refinanced around market highs in 2014 and the loans are due in 2019